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Lately I’ve consumed so much content regarding getting started producing your own content. How meta, right? (Seems like everyone has something to say about it right now.) And basically what everyone says–everyone– is this: Keep. Producing. Content. Keep on making your thing. If you want to read arguably the best and most comprehensive article on the subject, then do yourself a favor and devote ten minutes to reading this, thoroughly: Make Your Thing: 12 Point Program for Absolutely, Positively 1000% No-Fail Guaranteed Success

And if that’s too long, or you don’t have ten minutes to spare (seriously though, for makers-of-things, it’s ten minutes that you’re investing in your future, it’s that good) then here’s the sticking point for me: Don’t get so caught up in the details and future-plans (or lack thereof) that you never actually make/produce anything. Quit over-thinking and waiting for the “right time,” and just keep making your thing. It will not be perfect. It might not even be very good, and that’s okay. You need to practice. You need to figure out what works and what doesn’t. You need to exercise your making-muscle. If you can only work under the most ideal of circumstances, you lack the creative discipline to actually be a professional, so stop waiting for the stars to align, and just keep working.

Today I came across this quote, on RowdyKittens: “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst” (Henri Cartier-Bresson), and I felt that it summed-up the truth of the matter rather succinctly. Whether your thing is photography, or writing, or vlogging, or cooking, or heck, analyzing data and creating neato infographs, everyone has to go through their own personal amateur-hour before they actually get good at their thing. And if your thing is public-facing, that can be scary, right? No one wants to be judged harshly off of their first efforts.

Personal story: I completely hacked the first dance solo I was given in high school. I mean, seriously. It was terrible. I hacked it at every single competition we attended. Wanna know why? I never committed to getting it right in rehearsal, because I was so afraid of my teammates judging me. But that’s the thing! You have to have that vulnerability at first, in order to get all of that hacking out of the way. So what if those teammates judged me? If I’d have committed to taking risks in rehearsals, I likely wouldn’t have performed so terribly at competitions. I’d have worked my amateur-hour out already, and the audience would have received the “real thing.”

So if it’s a given that “your first 10,000 photographs will be your worst,” then what are you waiting for? Better get those out of the way so you can start making the “real thing.” A thing you can be proud of, and a thing that you’re not afraid of being judged on.

Which reminds me of another quote, which I will leave you with: “Feel the fear, and do it anyway.” Wish I could tell you who said that, or where I heard it, but it’s stuck with me and served me well on so many occasions. Acknowledge that you’re afraid, but don’t let that stop you from actually doing.